• • Facebook
  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • Technorati
  • Reddit
  • Stumble Upon
  • Furl

Utah-based Humless were victorious at the first Championship Cup Series (CCS) tournament of the season this weekend, taking out the Las Vegas Midnight Sevens.

The invitational outfit impressively beat defending CCS and Nationals defending champions Belmont Shore in the semi-final, before going on to beat East Palo Alto at the City of Sin tournament.

The young and inexperienced side contained players that hadn’t any previous rugby sevens experience but did include former USA international Mike Palefau.

In the top tier bracket (Aces), Humless did well enough against Vegas Blackjacks, Santa Monica, and OMBAC to qualify.

Although Belmont Shore, also the reigning Midnight Sevens holders, were under-strength Humless came back superbly in a tight last-four clash with Palefau particularly dominant. A missed Shore conversion proved enough in the 17-15 win.

Things proved easier in the final though sweeping aside East Palo Alto, 31-5.

The weekend’s tournament was the first of seven CCS tournaments staged through the year with teams aiming to qualify for the finals tournament also held Las Vegas and part of the overall USA Sevens event February.

The top two sides from each tournament will make it the finals with the whole competition run in association with the USA Sevens LLC.

“The players, spectators and officials all agreed that this was the best Midnight 7s in years,” organisers told UR7s.

“In the future we want to bring more teams from neighboring states to the competition and also more teams from the international market.

“Next year we would like to start an old boys division.”

2009/10 Championship Cup Series

Las Vegas Midnight 7s (June 19) – Humless, East Alto
PAC 7s (June 26)
Lakefront 7s (June 26)
Cape Fear 7s (July 4)
Kansas City 7s (July 10)
Denver 7s July (24)
NY 7s November (23)

Related articles:

Outstanding Belmont Shore take CCS Finals
Last qualifiers for CCS at NY 7s
Belmont Shore win Vegas midnight